George's Bad Day
by SEN 5241
Summary: George has a really bad day, and discusses it with his friend Wally. Now with more dialogue, and a different ending.


("Arthur" is owned by Marc Brown and PBS.) 

It was another normal day at Lakewood Elementary in the quiet little town of Elwood City. Kids sat in the cafeteria, eating their lunches and discussing everyday nonsense. George Nordgren, the shy moose boy, was carrying his lunch tray as he looked for a seat. His day was just going fine, until...

"Hey guys," Binky Barnes said to his friends Rattles and Molly, "Check this out."

Binky extended his leg out into the aisle between lunch tables-- right in George's path. George's leg came into contact with Binky's, and he tripped forward, falling to the floor, landing face-first into his lunch tray. Binky, Rattles and Molly laughed uproarously as George lifted his food-covered face off of the ground. Upon hearing the commotion, and seeing George, the entire cafeteria bursted into laughter as well.

Trembling in embarassment, George quickly stood up and ran. The laughter followed him as he made his way to the boys' restroom.

He grabbed several sheets of paper towels from the wall dispenser and began to wipe the mess away from his face and then his clothes.

After several minutes of scrubbing, his clothes were still stained, but he was satisfied enough. Throwing the used paper towels into the trash bin, he headed out of the restroom. As soon as he stepped out into the hallway, he bumped into somebody-- well, actually, somebody ran into him-- and he was thrown to the floor. He groaned and looked up to see Francine Frensky standing over him.

"Why don't you watch where you're going?" she snapped, before continuing her sprint down the hallway, leaving George sprawled out on the floor.

When the final bell rang, the students were milling about the hallways, going to their lockers and gathering their belongings. George was at his own locker, grabbing his textbooks and homework and stashing them into his backpack. His back was sore from his earlier collision with Francine.

He leaned forward and poked his head into the small, confined space to grab a book that was at the bottom. When he picked it up, he tried to pull his head back, but couldn't.

"Oh, no... not again," he whined.

His antlers were stuck in his locker. It was a common occurance for him as it must have happened at least twice a week. George struggled to pull himself out, but couldn't. He then cried to his classmates for help. Nobody did help, though; the kids just passed him by, talking amongst themselves or having more important things on their minds. The ones that did pay any attention to him just pointed and giggled at they walked by.

Binky and Rattles were heading down the hallway toward the exit when they saw George. Taking advantage of George's incapacitated state, Rattles kicked George in the rear. George yelped in surprise and pain.

"Bull's eye!" Binky guffawed.

The entire hallway started laughing, just as they did earlier in the cafeteria, before Binky took a turn and kicked George as well, causing everyone to laugh harder. George stood there, frozen and helpless, waiting for the laughter to die down. After what seemed to be minutes, the hallway eventually cleared out and was silent, except for some distant footsteps, the chattering of some students, and the slamming of a few locker doors.

He then went back to work, trying to jimmy his antlers out of their metal prison. With all of his strength (or what little he had), he propped his hands on the sides of his locker and pushed himself backward, straining heavily. Finally, his antlers popped out with a bang, causing George's head to snap back. Finally free, but with pain now eminating from his back, head, neck and behind, George sighed bitterly as he gathered what he needed and threw it in his backpack, picked it up, and slammed the locker door shut.

George made his way to the front exit. Just as he opened the door, he heard footsteps behind him and turned around. He saw Muffy Crosswire heading toward the door as well. He stepped aside and held the door open for her.

"See you tomorrow, Muffy," George said with a smile.

Muffy stopped to look at George-- and his stinking, food-stained clothes-- and responded only with a disgusted look before continuing on.

He stood there and watched as she made her way to her limo, and then watched as it drove off. His ginger smile devolved into a bitter frown. That was the final straw.

George charged his way out of the school and began to walk home. On the way, he came across the Tibble twins, who were playing with their toy trucks in the middle of the sidewalk. Determined not to let anything get in his way, he barged past the twins, kicking the toys forcefully, making them scatter in all directions.

"Clear a path! I'm going home!" George shouted.

Walking up to the front door of his house, George opened it and stepped inside. He saw that his mother was dusting furniture in the living room.

"Hello, George," Mrs. Nordgren greeted her son warmly, "How was school?"

Without a word of reply, George marched up to his bedroom. Mrs. Nordgren watched him as he climed the stairs. She was familiar with his quiet, unresponsive temperament. However, the way he was walking seemed more agressive to her than usual. Still, she pondered this very little before returning to her menial tasks.

Once in his room, George threw his backpack on the bed and went to his closet. After opening the door, he dropped to his knees and picked up a box. After carrying it to his bed, he opened it and pulled out an object-- Wally, his prized ventriloquist giraffe, and sat down.

With the help of George's hand, the wooden giraffe opened his eyes, looked about, until his gaze was fixed on the moose boy, "Whoa, George! You look terrible! What happened? Was it raining potatoes and gravy?"

"It was that horrible school," George replied as tears began to stream down his face.

"Aww, them again!" Wally waved his arms about in exasperation, "How could they not like you, George? I like you. You're beautiful, man!" he stroked George's cheek gently with one of his hooves, "If they can't see that, then there must be something wrong with them."

"There _is_ something wrong with them," George blubbered and sniffled, "I try to be nice, but they all just hate me; they laugh whenever something happens to me. I ask for their help and they ignore me. I don't know if I can take it anymore, Wally. I don't know what to do."

"Maybe you could make them see what a nice guy you are, make them respect you, _prove_ to them you're not weak, you know?"

George's eyes suddenly perked up. A grin began to grow on his face, "Thank you, Wally. I think I know what to do, now."

"No, George!" Wally exclaimed as his eyes grew wide, "That's not what I meant! You'll get in trouble, and you'll regret it for the rest of your life!"

"Keep it down, Wally!" George whispered, "You want Mom to hear you?"

"What about their families?" Wally continued, "What about _your_ family? What will they think of you?"

"Shut up!" George whispered again, albiet slightly louder.

"No!" the giraffe spat undauntedly at the boy, "Somebody has to stop you! You're unstable!"

"Shut up..." George growled as he clasped his free hand around Wally's neck.

"What are you doing?" Wally shouted, "You can't do this to me! Help! Somebody help m--"

The giraffe's cries were suddenly made silent as George twisted his little head off.

"You talk too much," he scolded the disembodied puppet head, before tossing it and the body aside. He then closed his eyes and drew in a breath, before he dug into box once more. His fingers found a small metallic object, and pulled it out of the box.

It was an object that made George's heart pound in anxiety each time he held it; an object that, to him, was a symbol of the greatest power he could ever obtain.

It was the key to his father's gun cabinet.

George smiled. The feeling of joy filled his heart. Joy knowing that he would no longer have to be humilated anymore; that everybody at school would finally give him the respect he thought he deserved, to get them to treat him like a human being...

...even if all of them had to die for it.

THE END

A/N: Eh, sorry guys, but I figured I'd just end it here. I absolutely could not bring myself to write a second chapter, not even a single sentance, and then eight months went by. So I came back, added/changed some dialogue between George and Wally, and changed the ending, etc. Yeah, the ending is clichéd, but this whole story is supposed to be, actually.

As to whether or not George goes through with it, that's up in the air. Personally, I don't think he will. He'll probably just chicken out or something, like he always does. :)


End file.
